Archive: 2014

Festival Archive

2014

HIGHLIGHTS

The sixth annual Boston Book Festival took place on October 23-25, 2014. Following a week of rain and wind (which didn’t damp the spirits of attendees at our Thursday evening memoir keynote with Herbie Hancock or our Friday evening fiction keynote with Susan Minot), BBF Saturday dawned clear and bright, a perfect New England autumn day.

Fans started lining up early in the morning for kids’ keynote presenter Rick Riordan, who was met by more than a thousand rockstar-worthy screams from the crowds packed into Trinity Church. Later in the day, an equally enthusiastic (if somewhat more sedate) crowd packed Trinity again to hear history keynote presenter Doris Kearns Goodwin offer timely insights into presidential leadership. World-famous architect Norman Foster, our art, architecture, and design keynote speaker, also dazzled Trinity audiences with insights into his singular vision and innovative designs.

Elsewhere in Copley Square and Back Bay, BBF’s illustrious lineup of more than two hundred presenters charmed and captivated attendees at more than five dozen sessions. Popular sessions included those on digital culture, memoir, and parenting, as well as a gathering of South Asian authors, a discussion of civil rights, and a vision of the future of libraries. Festivalgoers eagerly found their way to new venues, including popular sessions featuring French writers at the French Cultural Center and an equally packed series of BBF Unbound community-developed sessions at First Church.

Kids had plenty to keep them busy and happy all day long, especially at our new Character Connection tent in Copley Square Park, where they could meet characters like Corduroy and Llama Llama—and take part in a costume parade themselves. Authors and illustrators, including Anna Dewdney and Chris Raschka, shared their works with the picture book set, while older kids crafted puppet characters, guffawed at master storytellers, and met favorite authors like Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, and Ann M. Martin.

The glorious autumn weather drew an estimated 32,000 attendees to tour our 70+ exhibitor booths, including small presses, bookstores, literary nonprofits, and MFA programs. The centerpiece of our street fair was the big BBF tent, where BBF merchandise and info shared space with Brookline Booksmith and Presenting Partner 90.9 WBUR, whose on-air hosts chatted with visitors throughout the day (when they weren’t moderating some of our biggest sessions). Celebrating the kickoff of Boston’s new literary cultural district, tour guides from Boston By Foot led history buffs on walking tours through the literary history of the Back Bay. On the Berklee Stage, an eclectic music lineup engaged music fans all day long. 826 Boston’s booth, where attendees could get their photo with Bigfoot, and Fidelity’s booth, where kids could literally picture the future, were highlights for kids completing the Passport to Imagination scavenger hunt. Young BBF fans also learned that they’ll soon have a new opportunity for festive fun, at the BBF’s newly announced kids’ festival, HUBBUB, premiering June 20, 2015.

Enthusiastic attendees ended their BBF Saturday with one of two wrap-up sessions: a “Poems and Pints” reading at a local bar or a fun-filled Words and Music literary “jam session,” where novelists Wesley Stace, Stacey D’Erasmo, and Kate Racculia enjoyed conversations with emcee Paul Harding, punctuated with musical interludes by Stace and the band Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library.

Over and over we hear from attendees who hate to choose between the many fascinating sessions at the BBF. The good news is that thanks to our archived audio recordings, they don’t really have to. Download sessions to your computer or portable audio device, and you can take the BBF with you in the car, to the gym, or on a walk. It’s the best way we know to pass the time until the next BBF in October 2015!

2014 AUDIO

Audio recordings are available for the following sessions from BBF 2014:

(Note: clicking the title of a session will play the audio file in a new window. To download the file to your hard drive, right-click (PC) or ctrl-click (Mac) and select “Download linked file” from the menu that appears.)